Dighton making progress on construction of new police station

Police Station Building Committee Chairman James Howland and Selectmen Chairman Dean Cronin said the town has submitted with the state central registry requests for a project manager. Cronin said town authorities have already received approximately 10 bids in two days. The deadline to submit bids for the project manager position is in three weeks.

The town is making slow but steady progress toward building a new police station.

Police Station Building Committee Chairman James Howland and Selectmen Chairman Dean Cronin said the town has submitted with the state central registry requests for a project manager. Cronin said town authorities have already received approximately 10 bids in two days. The deadline to submit bids for the project manager position is in three weeks.

He said officials will narrow the candidate pool to three and name a manager who is both qualified and affordable. Cronin said the next step after that will be to seek proposals for building designers. After that, authorities will seek construction bids.

Cronin said the town is a few months from breaking ground on the project but so far things have fallen into place. Land has been donated, deeds recorded and land surveyed for the prospective building that will be placed on Somerset Avenue.

Both he and Howland are optimistic that a new station will be built by next year.

Howland asserted that this new police station is long overdue. The current one on Route 138 is not in compliance with American with Disabilities Act, and has no proper locker rooms or holding cells, among many other issues.

He said the building was a a former Department of Public Works garage donated in the 1970s. The town's growth merits an upgraded station, Howland noted.

The proposed 7,020 square-foot police station was approved by voters at the Annual Town Meeting on June 12 last year and in a town referendum in Aug. 9. It is on land to the immediate south of the Dighton Power entrance, according to Taunton Gazette reports.

The approximate $2.5 million new police station will mean an estimated tax increase for residents of about $14 per year per $100,000 of home valuation, according to the Dighton Assessor’s office, according to Gazette archives.